Govt directs telcos to pay ~1.5L cr after SC rebuke

SC warns of contempt action against DOT officer, telcos

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday set a minute-to-midnight deadline for telecom companies, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, to pay the ₹1.47 lakh crore they owe towards spectrum charges and licence fees, after a livid Supreme Court (SC) took the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) and cellular operators to task over the non-enforcement of an October ruling by the top court.

“...you are hereby directed to make the payment of outstanding dues of LF and SUC (license fee and spectrum usage charges) by 14.02.2020, 11.59 pm positively,” read one DOT order sent to telecom operators, shortly after it withdrew a January 23 order that no coercive action be taken against the defaulters. The orders were sent from DOT offices at each of India’s 22 telecom circles. The twin moves came in response to the Supreme Court warning of contempt action against the chiefs of defaulting telecom companies as well as the DOT desk officer responsible for the January 23 order that was issued in the backdrop of extreme stress in the telecom sector.

Bharti Airtel responded immediately, offering to pay ₹10,000 crore by February 20 and the rest of its dues before the next date of hearing, March 17.

“... in compliance with the judgement of the Hon’ble Supreme Court and their direction today, we shall deposit a sum of ₹10,000 crore (on account) by 20th February, 2020, on behalf of the Bharti Group companies,”

Airtel said in a letter to member (finance) at DOT.

Airtel, which owes nearly ₹35,586 crore by way of licence fees and spectrum usage charges, said it was in the process of completing a self assessment exercise.

“You will appreciate this is a complicated process, covering 22 circles, multiple licenses and a substantial period of time and hence, is time consuming,” the letter said.

There was no immediate statement from Vodafone Idea.

On October 24, the Supreme Court allowed the central government to recover ₹92,641 crore in

Top court admonishes telecom companies for not paying up dues by the Jan 23 deadline Bench directs telcos to appear before court on March 17, explain delay and clarify why action shouldn’t be taken

Court also criticises a January order by telecom department asking govt not to take coercive action against telcos for not paying the due. The department withdrew the order on Friday adjusted gross revenue (AGR) from telecom companies in a verdict that hit Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea the hardest. The court accepted the government’s definition of AGR — that it includes their income from revenue lines that are not central to their main business.

Income from sales of handsets, termination and roaming charges, rent and dividends should count as part of AGR, which determines what telecom companies pay as licence fee and spectrum usage fee, the court ruled in a verdict that came at a time when debt-laden service providers were already under intense pressure because of adverse regulatory orders,hefty levies and intense competition amid a price war set off by the entry in 2016 of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel both posted record losses in the September quarter.

The court order came in a 16-year-old case stemming from DOT claims that telecom companies had under-reported their revenue and thus paid less for spectrum and in the form of other levies.